Disco Giants, Vol. 3

If there is one gateway into what the Netherlands' PTG label does (they reissue '80s club-oriented R&B, basically) it's the third volume of their Disco Giants series, which is packed with radio smashes and underground club favorites. It's less reliant upon the kind of post-disco marginalia that appeals only to the most hardcore fans of the era, and it will be a goldmine for anyone who knows the biggest hits -- like Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam with Full Force's "I Wonder If I Take You Home" and Jellybean's "Sidewalk Talk" (featuring Madonna), both of which are here -- and wants to dig deeper. Highlights include (but are not limited to) Odyssey's "Inside Out," Skipworth & Turner's "Thinking About Your Love," Yarbrough & Peoples' "Don't Stop the Music," Billy Ocean's "Nights (Feel Like Getting Down)," Loose Ends' "Slow Down," and High Fashion's "Feeling Lucky Lately" (the closest a Jacques Fred Petrus-produced group came to repeating the shimmering bliss of Change's "Paradise"). Just about everything here was an indispensable tool for an '80s club jock. ~ Andy Kellman